Position Statements

NSW Gaps Position Statement

This ECIA Position Paper, developed by ECIA NSW/ACT has been the culmination of various discussions, consultations and two round tables with key government agencies, the ECI sector and Non-Government (NGO) representatives and makes a number of strategic recommendations addressing and highlighting key issues, concerns and possible ways forward.

It reflects the issues raised by our NSW members during the last 12 months, with the focus on historic issues regarding the interface with other government systems and the redefined role of early childhood intervention (ECI) providers under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

This ECIA Position Paper, developed by ECIA NSW/ACT has been the culmination of various discussions, consultations and two round tables with key government agencies, the ECI sector and Non-Government (NGO) representatives and makes a number of strategic recommendations addressing and highlighting key issues, concerns and possible ways forward.

It reflects the issues raised by our NSW members during the last 12 months, with the focus on historic issues regarding the interface with other government systems and the redefined role of early childhood intervention (ECI) providers under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

ECIA will continue to represent our case to Government and to work with all our stakeholders to improve the opportunities for and needs of children with developmental delay and disability and their families.

ECA and ECIA Joint Position Statement on the Inclusion of Children with Disability in ECEC Settings

In August 2012, the joint position statement on the inclusion of children with a disability was launched at the national ECIA Conference in Perth by Denise Luscombe, President of Early Childhood Intervention Australia, and Margaret Young, President of Early Childhood Australia. For ECA, the statement was launched at their National ECA Conference in October 2012.

This statement was the culmination of a 12 month project. The project had two phases to inform the development of the joint position statement: an initial round of focus groups around Australia followed by a national survey of a range of stakeholders involved in inclusive education. The online survey was based on the findings from the listening sessions with the survey being designed to investigate these findings with a larger number of participants. One common theme that came out strongly in the listening sessions and online survey was the need to build the capacity of the early childhood education and care and support professionals to support high quality inclusion.

The development of a joint position statement on the inclusion of children with a disability in Early Childhood and Education and Care (ECEC) settings was seen as very timely and a major first step forward with further collaboration between the 2 sectors, particularly in the training area, viewed as essential to build on the work of the statement.

An article has recently appeared in Every Child that discusses some of the findings from the project to develop the inclusion statement as below.
Forster, J.; Davies, S.; Skeat, H. & Luscombe, D. (2013). ‘Key Issues: Including children with disability’. Every Child. Early Childhood Australia. Vol 19. No. 3.